Frequently asked questions about Wills

Select a question from the list below and click on it to reveal the answer:

Q. What will happen if I don’t make a Will?

A. If you are married your spouse may not inherit all your estate. They may have to share it with all your children if you have any or with other relations if you do not have any children.

No account will be taken of any wishes or intentions you might have about what should happen to your assets on your death.

If you are living with someone but not married to them they will not receive anything from your estate and will not even be entitled to arrange your funeral.

If you have not made a Will appointing guardians for your children then a court might have to decide who should look after them.

If you have not made a Will appointing an Executor then you have no control over who will administer your estate and deal with your affairs

Q. What is an Executor?

A. An Executor is someone who you appoint in your Will to carry out your wishes after your death. Your Executor must be somebody that you trust to carry out your wishes.

Q. What is a beneficiary?

A. A beneficiary is a person who is left a gift in a Will – they are the beneficiary of that gift.

Q. After my father died my mother married again. If she dies before my stepfather what will happen to her estate?

A. If she made a Will before she married, then her marriage would have revoked the Will and she will be treated as if she does not have a Will. Unless she has made a new Will it is probable you will not receive anything from her estate.

Q. Since I made my Will leaving everything to my husband we have divorced. Do I need to make a Will?

A. Yes you do. Although your ex-husband will not benefit from your Will now that you are divorced you need to say what should happen to your assets on your death.

Q. My mother has died and my father is very old and quite confused. Can he make a Will?

A. He can only make a Will if he is mentally capable. There are special rules which we apply to find out whether our clients have the necessary mental capacity to make Wills. In certain circumstances it is possible to ask the Court to make a Will for a person who does not have the mental capacity to do so. We are specialists in advising elderly clients.

Q. Can I do anything in my Will to stop all the money my wife inherits from me being used to pay her nursing home?

A. Yes – by using a Trust in your Will you can look after your wife and at the same time protect your share of any family assets from being used to pay nursing home fees.

Q. What about a homemade Will?

A. Anybody can buy a Will pack from a shop or over the internet and prepare a Will themselves. Sometimes these Wills can be perfectly valid, but in many cases they are not. The legal requirements for making a Will are quite stringent and if you make a mistake or miss something out that should have been included the Will might not be valid. What you want might be very simple but many words have special legal meanings which are different from their every day use and the legal formalities must be strictly followed. It also means that you might miss something important because you will not get the benefit of one of our experienced Solicitors explaining the things you ought to consider when making a Will, and which are not necessarily things you would think of yourself.

Q. What about Will Writers. Aren’t they cheaper?

A. Surprisingly, Will Writers often charge more for their services than we do as Solicitors. Although some Will Writers belong to their trade organisation and some of them are good, how do you know which is which?

We often come across cases where Wills have been badly drafted by Will Writers, or even where clients have been charged for their Wills to be kept but the Will writing company has gone out of business and they cannot find the Wills that were prepared for them.

Our service is not expensive and we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. We have very high standards indeed that we must maintain both in respect of our training, professionalism and the way we look after our clients. We also have professional indemnity insurance in case anything goes wrong.